Pookastone Scowle got evil on your mind, trouble at your feet.

RE: Pookastone Scowle, due to recent snows, your local water source has become very difficult to access.
Early evening.  9F, cloudy.  Open for one.

Her Mama probably would have told her she wasn't giving the place a fair chance - and that was accurate, she really wasn't - but Mama was dead, so her advice was probably bad. Didn't keep her alive. And as far as she could tell, there was no reason to give any place a chance. Morganna hadn't beaten the shit out of her. Yet.

But her skin was crawling and her insides were burning and she might blame the water for making her sick if it hadn't frozen over. If she hadn't seen what happened to the other wolves last spring at Crow's Crossing before her Mama took off. So she knew. And she wished she wasn't so stupid. Thought about this a few short weeks ago when she accepted Morganna's lame offer.

She should run.

She didn't even need to take anything. Crow huffed and scratched at the surface of the frozen water. No one would ever even know she'd gone. It was like they still hadn't realized she was here.

Hope you don't mind I throw Cas at her? :D

The rugged male idly trudged through the snowy labyrinth of the cedarwood trees. He had taken his time familiarising himself with the terrain of the Scowle lands during his first few days with the pack, and now felt semi-comfortable traversing it. It would, of course, take him quite some time to get fully adjusted to his new life, but Castiel was hopeful he could make some friends along the way.

Tawny ears pricked at the sudden exhale from a wolf up ahead. The rugged male had not expected to come across someone given the sudden cold snap that completely froze all the water nearby, but it was a welcome surprise. He lumbered forward until he caught sight of the wolf, and barked softly to announce his presence. It would do him no good to scare them, after all. Castiel took note of her reddish tawny hues and lack of a washed out mask on her face, surmising that it was unlikely she was a Lyall, though he could not rule out her being an Archer. From what he gathered the Archer bloodline had spread out among the Lore far more than when he had lived in the lands as a pup.

"Hello," he said with an amicable wave of his tail, lips twitching up in a small, but friendly, smile. "I'm Castiel Archer Lyall." He kept his distance from her just in case she did not seek close company with him, and he was fully ready to leave her be if that was what she wanted.

The snow didn't hide much. It squeaked and crunched under paws - even as Namir scratch-scratched at the ice on the edge of the lagoon. Ears rolled back, tail pressing against her leg. She stopped her efforts, watching the incoming wolf, but never quite turning to face him. Not yet. Not until she addressed him.

Another Archer.

She shouldn't be surprised. Morganna was like a disease that spread everywhere. Mud. Got on everything. Never got unstuck once it was in your fur.

"'m Crow," she drawled, golden eyes following the older wolf. Idly, she wondered when she dropped the 'Little' part of Little Crow. Her nose flared. Maybe when she started stinking like all those other bitches. Now she was one of them. She scuttled a little further from Castiel, just in case he got any funny ideas about her. About her condition. "You know where to get water right now?"

She really didn't want to go north again.

@Castiel -- Thanks for joining!

Castiel took note of the tawny female's wariness towards him. He could understand why; spring was finally coming around, and not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable, he leaned back until his rump touched the ground. The rugged male knew how to use his immense size to his advantage, be that in a fight or as a peacekeeping method, but he also recognised how it could make others somewhat uneasy. "It's nice to meet you Crow," he remarked in a casual tone.

The rugged male tipped his muzzle to the side, head canting as his brows furrowing slightly in thought. Though the ice made it very difficult to access the flowing water beneath it, he had learned a couple tricks from his old pack that may be able to help in Crow's endeavour. "I do know of a way to possibly get to the water in the lagoon..." he murmured as he rose to his feet, slowly sauntering in an arc around the tawny female so as to keep some distance between them as she wanted, before stopping at the edge of the lagoon. "But it involves going out onto the ice." Castiel turned his head to glance at Crow with a slight grin on his maw. He had been warned by Morganna of the beast lurking beneath the ice, and wondered if the tawny female was willing to risk a round with it for access to the water.

"Uh huh."

Damn, what petty ass kind of elk dung was that? Nice to meet you. Puh-lease. There was nothing nice about Crow. No pretty smile or curvy figure or handsome personality. Just a bird in wolf skin trying to get by. Maybe he meant the smell. She knew, or at least thought she knew, that all boys like the way all the girls smelled this time of year. Dios mio.

It was frickin' gross.

So was that dumb smile. Was he trying to trick her, going out on the ice? Her ears rolled farther back as yellow eyes shifted from the other Scowle wolf out to the frozen lagoon surface. "Do I look heckin' stupid t'you?" she snorted, wondering if this was some sort of hazing. Drown the new girl. Yeah, sounded like something they'd do back at Crow's Crossing. Every pack was the same, really. "I ain't goin' out on th' damn ice. S'how a wolf drowns. Even I know that."

And she grew up on the sun and the sand. Not a flake of snow in sight. "I meant get water safely."

Heckin' jerk. Didn't think she needed to specify that.

No need to match my post length at all lol

Tawny ears twitched at Crow's retort. He could understand her uncertainty at his proposition; he too had been averse to the idea at first. Drowning was as unpleasant as it sounded, but if done properly the chance of that happening was very unlikely. "It's safe if you know what you're doing," Castiel said as he placed his front paws on the ice, testing it before he let the rest of his body follow. This would only work if the ice was thick enough to support his weight, but also thin enough in the right spot to break it so the water beneath it could be accessed.

"You don't have to join me if you think it's too dangerous... you also might not be heavy enough to break the ice anyways." It was a fine art that not all wolves could do, but if there was one thing he knew how to do, it was how to most effectively use his weight to his advantage. The rugged male slowly made his way further onto the ice, testing each step before fully placing his paw down. One wrong move and he would plummet down into the icy depths of the lagoon. When he was a couple wolf lengths from the bank Castiel paused and pressed down on the ice with both front paws. He grinned widely as he both felt and heard the ice crack slightly beneath him. This would do just nicely.

The rugged male glanced back at Crow with a raised eyebrow, a silent offer for her to join him if she wanted to. Take it, leave it, it did not matter to him. She wanted water so he would do his best to provide it for her, no 'thank you's' needed. Castiel braced himself by lowering his hindquarters to better find purchase on the ice, gripping tightly with his toes and claws. Slipping was not an option when one was purposely breaking the ice underneath them. With a deep inhale, he raised his front half into the air before slamming his front paws down onto the ice with all his might, feeling the ice crack delightfully with the action. This was his favourite part.

Repeating the movement multiple times, Castiel finally felt the ice give way and crumble beneath him. He jumped back with a shake of his fur, tail swaying behind him happily as he regarded the hole in the ice he had made. "There's water now, if you still want a drink," he said with a momentary glance back at Crow before slinking closer to the hole and carefully taking a few sips of the icy cold water.

If you know what you’re doing…

Namir sneered. What a jerk. Clearly, she did not, or she would have fucking done it by now. As the large wolf waddled out onto the snow-covered ice, she stayed planted firmly on the solid ground. Ears rolled back as he kept talking – dios mio, didn’t he know when to stop talking? Stop staying stupid shit? So she stayed, kept her jaw firmly shut, and watched as the other wolf cracked the ice. Shit.

Even safe on the shore, she jumped.

She watched, silently. Castiel had finally broken through, and she watched him sip. The ice didn’t groan anymore. Nothing else happened. She hmmm’d unhappily, ears folding against her skull, and then she carefully shimmied her way after him, taking tiny baby steps until she reached the water. She dipped down, sighing relief as she let the water fill her belly. “So y’live out here a long time, ‘er what?”

She glanced back at shore. One more drink, and then she was off this heckin’ ice.

I don't really care what you do about that

Castiel Archer Lyall

Castiel stayed silent as the tawny female slowly crawled her way onto the ice and to the hole he had made. Satisfied at fulfilling her desire to get water, the rugged male turned to her, tail swishing behind him on the ice. He had no need for her to thank him, after all he had done it mostly on his own volition; she had just happened to also want a drink. And so when she asked him a question he did not mind, though he was a little surprised. He certainly did not feel fully acquainted with the Scowle pack, but it was possible he looked as if he did.

The rugged male shook his head in response. No, I haven't lived here since I was a pup. Technically he had not even lived 'here' as he had been born in the willows, but that was semantics and he had no time for that. But I did live in a pack where water was hard to get most of the year, which is where I learned how to do this. Living on a mountain range meant the water nearby was pretty much always frozen during the frozen months and even going into Spring. It had been too much effort to go down the mountain side to get water, hence the wolves had taught themselves the neat little trick he had just executed.

“Huh. Go figure.”

This was her ‘living away for a year’ she supposed – though Crow was pretty certain she had no intention of trotting on back to Crow’s Crossing when her curiosity was well and sated. Save for the warmer weather, there was nothing going for that pack. She had no friends. She had her uses, yeah, and protection and food was nice, but…

She was thinking too hard. The sandy female gave her head a hard shake. Without another word, she leaned down for that ‘one more drink’ and lapped it up…and then she was scuttling across the ice as quickly as she could, craving the safety of solid ground.

“Well. Thanks, I guess. ‘ll see you around.”

No use hanging around boys, not right now.

@Castiel -- Fade with your post so we can claim? :)